20 Gal IM Peninsula Build

[Yasha Hase]

Jumping back into the hobby after a 10 year hiatus my last tank was a 10 gallon I set up in 5th grade with the help of my dad. I ran that tank into the ground over the course of 2 years causing water damage to the first floor ceiling in the process. So now 10 years later I'm a little less responsible with a little more money so I can dump twice as much water on the floor!

I'm setting up a 20 gallon AIO peninsula (my dad had a 180 Peninsula when I was a kid and I've always loved the peninsula tanks). Right now I'm waiting for everything to come in so I can start cycling the tank. As far as equipment goes I'm fairly limited by the nature of the AIO design.

For flow the plan is to run the stock return pump which is rated for 211 gph unless it turns out to be terribly noisy. I also plan to run an aquami kps powerhead on the back of the tank and possibly an mp 10 on the front if the flow can't make the full loop nicely. I got the mp10 during a drunken eBay escapade thinking for whatever reason that the DRY assembly could just go in the back of the tank but it turns out the dry assembly needs to be dry they should be more clear about that.

for filtration I plan to run the IM ghost protein skimmer as that's just about all that will fit back there as well as a cute little media basket made by In Tank with filter floss a 100 micron felt pad, carbon and possibly chemipure blue or some other filtration media I need to do more research on that front.

For lights I have a shitty Chinese black box specifically mars aqua. I know everyone says not to skimp on the lights but I only plan on having Pocillopora and Stylophora as far as SPS goes at least in the beginning so I'm hoping it will be fine.

For stocking I'm planning on a yasha goby candy stripe pistol pair, tanaka's pygmy wrasse and a helfrichi firefish as well as a pair of porcelain anemone crabs with a mini maxi and your usual CUC with a few blue legs and a variety of snails mostly dwarf ceriths with a few florida ceriths and nerites thrown in for variety.

That was a little long winded but I've been wanting to set this tank up now for a long time so it's good to get it out there!